Town Centre Securities, the Leeds publicly quoted property company, one of the white knights talking to Ewart, is interested in expanding in Northern Ireland. It already has a retail park in Belfast and a retail warehouse in Newry, and is looking for further retail properties in the area, a spokesman has told The Irish Times.

He said he "could not comment" on yesterday's report in The Irish Times which identified his company as one of the white knights interested in making a counter-bid for Belfast property company Ewart, which has rejected a £21.1 million sterling (£25 million) bid from Dunloe House. However, he said, Town Centre Securities would love to expand in Northern Ireland.

A spokesman for Ewart said it was not the company's policy to comment because of confidentiality. However, Ewart confirmed recent press reports that a consortium headed by Mr John McGuckian, chairman of UTV, was one of the other parties interested in making a bid. Town Centre Securities is capitalised at more than £130 million. Its main interests are in retail property but, like Ewart, it retains car parking in its developments. The board controls about 25 per cent of the equity. The Ewart statement confirming the talks with the McGuckian consortium said the directors "excluding messrs Smyth and Harrington (directors of Ewart and Dunloe), accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement and, to the best of their knowledge and belief (having taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the information contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts".

Ewart, as part of its defence to the Dunloe offer, has already brought forward interim results - to December 31st 1997 - which raised the net assets per share from 66p sterling to 81p. Its rejection document, out later this week, is expected to be critical of Dunloe's record.